Vietnam sets credit growth target at 17% for 2018

NDO - The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has targeted credit growth of about17% for 2018, said deputy governor Nguyen Thi Hong at a press conference on January 7.

She added that based on this target, the central bank will assign specific targets to each credit institution, which may be adjusted to their actual performance to ensure credit expansion is followed by effectiveness.

Last year, loans made by credit institutions in Vietnam rose 18.17%, partly helping the economy expand by 6.81%, the highest growth rate in ten years and exceeding the target of 6.7%.

According to Tran Van Tan, an official at the central bank, the structure of credit in 2017 saw a significant shift to more productive and safer sectors of the economy and growth was evenly distributed throughout the year rather than the final months as in many previous years.

Official figures have shown that credit to the agricultural sector and priority industries soared by 23% and 22.13% respectively while loans to the export sector, and small and medium-sized enterprises also grew strongly by over 10%.

Meanwhile, loans given to risky sectors, such as real estate, were curbed to grow at a slower pace.

In 2017, broad money supply was estimated to increase by 16%, within the goal of 16-18% set at the start of the year and the rate of non-performing loans was maintained at below 3%.